The UN special rapporteur on torture has formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Bradley Manning, the US soldier who was held in solitary confinement for almost a year on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source.
Juan Mendez has completed a 14-month investigation into the treatment of Manning since the soldier's arrest at a US military base in May 2010. He concludes that the US military was at least culpable of cruel and inhumane treatment in keeping Manning locked up alone for 23 hours a day over an 11-month period in conditions that he also found might have constituted torture.
"The special rapporteur concludes that imposing seriously punitive conditions of detention on someone who has not been found guilty of any crime is a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity as well as of his presumption of innocence," Mendez writes.
I do not consider torture to be a laughing matter, Izzy.
I consider The Guardian to be a laughing matter.
I consider your advocacy for Manning and Snowden to be a manifestation of an intense dislike of America...and because of that, I consider you, at times, to be a laughing matter.
I try to be reasonable with you...and courteous. I appreciate the times when we get along...and I much prefer those times to these where we are at loggerheads.
But, it is my opinion that if Edward Snowden comes back to the United States...he will get a fair trial.
I think Edward Snowden does not want a fair trial...and I think you do not want him to get a fair trial either. I think he, and most of his supporters, want him to get a rigged trial...and probably a ticker tape parade to boot.
I have a very good understanding of what a fair trial is...and I am convinced that you do not want Snowden to get a fair trial.
I think you want him to get a rigged trial.
0 Replies
izzythepush
0
Fri 19 Jun, 2015 04:02 pm
@Frank Apisa,
We've gone through the looking glass here, we can't even agree of the definition of words. Clearly your definition of a free trial is one where the prosecution are allowed to torture the accused, the accused is denied witnesses and the verdict is high enough to affect viewing figures, (and probably sponsored by Bud.) That's not how most people would define it.
It's a reasonable description of the trial Bradley Manning received, and you claim that's a fair trial.
It may...or may not...be a reasonable description of what happened to Bradley Manning before his trial...but it most assuredly is not a reasonable description of the trial.
The "trial"...and what may or may not have happened before the trial, are NOT the same thing, Izzy.
The trial, as nearly as I can tell, was a fair trial.
If you have any evidence that the trial itself was not fair...tell us about it.
Quote:
Now you're just tying yourself up in knots.
No, I am not. Perhaps you think that because I am allowing you to tie yourself up in knots.
In any case, there is no legitimate reason to suppose that if Edward Snowden came back to the United States...that he would not be able to get a fair trial.
(DISCLAIMER: Bradley Manning is now Chelsea Manning...and the male pronouns I used above were in keeping with a reasonable reply to Izzy's comment. Chelsea ought now to be referred to using female pronouns...as she prefers.)
The treatment is all part of the trial. Let me spell it out, if the accused has been tortured, the trial is not fair regardless of how fair the court proceedings may appear.
Manning's treatment before the trial is of no more impact on whether the trial was fair or not...than his treatment as a two year old at the hands of his parents.
Get that...or don't get it.
Whichever.
If Snowden returns to the United States to face trial...there is no reason to suppose the trial will not be a fair one.
I'm not going around in circles with you Frank. He was tortured therefore the trial was not fair. It's very simple. Now you can splutter and deny all you want much that's just how it is.
I'm not going around in circles with you Frank. He was tortured therefore the trial was not fair. It's very simple. Now you can splutter and deny all you want much that's just how it is.
Well you are wrong, Izzy, but that's okay. You often are.